When I was younger and hunting in Idaho, it seemed like the gun didn't matter much at all. I used guns "roughly" sighted in, and guns sighted in for different ammo than I was using, guns sighted in by a right-hander while I am a lefty. Ammo was a strange mix of my dad's handloads (usually on the mild side, and quite variable in accuracy) and cheap factory ammo (a blend of Rem CL, Win PP, and Federal) because of the split-up family situation.
I remember climbing several thousand vertical feet a day after mule deer in sheep country. I remember endless climbing up and down mountains. I remember endless walking. But the killing was all short ranges (15- 250yds), and the half-assed gun/load prep never mattered. When I moved to Montana when I got a bit older, the areas I ended up hunting were a mix between heavy, thick timber and huge open canyons. Shots came at short distances at times, but more often, we ended up having shots that were ridiculously long according to my younger self. A range finder became a necessity, as did avid handloading, as well as lots of practice well past the ranges I shot things when I was younger. I could definitely hunt again where shots were nearly always less than 200yds, but that requires a bit more hiking in and a bit more hauling out than the areas I hunt now. Still, I try to be in the best shape I can possibly be in, because most every hunt where nothing gets killed is still several miles of hiking wearing and carrying about 25 lbs of stuff, with a whole lot of up and down, and it's a whole lot more demanding when something ends up on the ground.
I feel bad for those road hunters I see every year. I may be one in the future. Hunting for me was never about killing. It is about testing myself against nature. If the test aspect was taken away, it would be a whole lot less fun. Which is why I still hunt elk. I can't quite imagine sitting in a stand, shooting a deer, and calling that hunting.
